Analysts say e-reader market is dying - literally

A market analyst has stated that the reason why e-reader sales are declining is not because of competition from tablets, but because the baby boomer generation is dying off.

A study conducted by ABI Research found that most of the world’s e-reader sales were being made in the US market, where most of the people buying them were of ever increasing ages. The decline is sales, therefore, is due to mortality among the customer base.

“Tablets have little to do with the trajectory of dedicated digital readers,” said ABI’s senior practice director Jeff Orr. “The facts are that the US market continues to dominate global e-reader shipments, and an ageing Baby Boomer population looking to replicate the print reading experience is a waning audience.”

Unfortunately the research doesn’t seem to examine whether or not a stable and simple device with a long battery life might naturally have a slower replacement cycle than a product with a contract life that acts as an incentive to upgrade, such as mobile devices.

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